Kathryn Schulz: On being wrong Review (#5)

     The thought of being wrong is very scary for human beings. In her TED talk, Kathryn Schulz reminded her audience that being wrong is OK, and is part of being human. Kathryn has studied this topic for about five years and brings up the point that being wrong is what leads to an interesting life story filled with success and creativity. Watching her speak, I especially enjoyed  a one of her statements that being wrong is special to humans as our amazing minds "can see the world for what it isn't. We can think of the past and future." This struck me because that is what makes us different from all the other animals out there. We are so obsessed with remembering what is behind us and seeing what is in front of us that we hardly know what we are talking about in the present!
         What made Schulz so believable and someone the audience could be  comfortable to be told they were wrong by was that she was so down to earth. At the beginning of her talk, she told a funny story about her completely making a fool of herself due to a misunderstanding on a road trip. This warmed up the audience and proved her point that everyone goes through this kind of embarrassment. She also allowed herself to be vulnerable and awkward in front of the audience. Some of her jokes were not too funny but she was secure in herself, further proving that being wrong once in a while should not be looked at as a big thing.

     One great technique Schulz used was an analogy to help her viewers understand the feeling of being right, and then realizing how wrong you actually were. She used the example of the coyote and the roadrunner, how while the coyote chases his prey, he ends up following it off a cliff. However, the coyote is completely unaware of this wrong choice and remains suspended in the air until he looks down and realizes this mistake. He was so sure of himself that his wrong felt like a right, or that he was still on solid ground. This is the same path our thoughts take when we make a horrible mistake.
     Errors make up a major piece of all of life. I have had many times where I have fought with my best friend, just to see who was right about a stupid subject. Reflecting on this TED talk, this is not something I am proud of because sometimes those quarrels seem to push us further apart. We have made the concept of being wrong so vile that nobody wants to admit it, when in reality, many wrongs can make a right, just a creative right. In the education world, as Schulz brought up, we are so hammered as young children to not make mistakes and that there is one way of thinking to solve certain problems. This unethical way of teaching has been addressed in so many other books and talks, like Sir Robinson's, I wonder how nobody has done anything about it. Children have the ability to take a different path to figure out an issue, adult teachers may not understand their thought process, but if they are not allowed to practice trial and error, so many creative results will not be able to help us in the future. The world is going to have to accept this new way of thinking as part of transitioning into what Dan Pink calls the "Conceptual Age". History has proven, for example, that errors in inventions have created the very tools we use daily because the inventor was not bothered by his or her faults, they persevered and possibly made something they hadn't even dreamed of. The "system" we have today does not allow humans to simply make a mistake without ridicule, and that will be dangerous come the artistic "Conceptual Age" Daniel Pink of A Whole New Mind predicts.
     Kathryn Schulz's speech was interesting because to many, it was something that the public may not want to hear. We are simply wrong. A lot. She was respectful in delivering her point but I do believe she could have maybe beefed up the issue by connecting it herself to other instances around the world or even give herself a more credible look by including factual research, just to appeal to the L-Directed thinkers in the audience. Overall, however, I thoroughly enjoyed her topic because it gave me a better outlook on how I will now view my thought process. And who knows, if everyone out there watched her talk, so many exciting ideas could be unleashed because nobody would be afraid of being wrong.

Picture Citations: 1) http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/74/Kathryn_Schulz_-_official_author_photo.JPG/220px-Kathryn_Schulz_-_official_author_photo.JPG 
2) http://img.slate.com/media/1/123125/2253303/2253718/2253719/2253720/100512_Wrong_cliffTN.jpg